Wii U

This week the folks at Nintendo have revealed the first Mario Kart game for the Wii U, bringing on a new collection of abilities for a new generation as well as pushing together a set of the best hits from past iterations. This game will be known as Mario Kart 8, and will be released in the Spring of 2014 - not nearly soon enough!

It's apparent this afternoon that Gamestop is seeing the first of a line of Nintendo-send "Basic Recall" notes for the Wii U basic 8GB model. This model is the smallest and least expensive of the Wii U units out on the market today, this suggesting that the machine is not being called back by Nintendo because of any defect, instead only moving to usher in a new wave of lowered prices and higher capacities.

Nintendo has outed a fresh batch of hardware and accessories for Japan, including a white Wii U 32GB console and a larger battery for the tablet GamePad controller to address runtime claims. The new white Wii U 32GB Premium edition should arrive in Japan on July 13, functionally identical to the existing black model aside from the new casing; it'll go on sale alongside a new Rapid Charging Stand for the Wiimote, which Nintendo says will cut down the amount of time gamers will need to have the motion-sensing controller on charge.

Nintendo has listed the 110 Best Buy stores that will give impatient gamers an opportunity to play new Wii U and 3DS titles alongside their launch at E3 2013 next month, as part of its attempt to boost enthusiasm in the fact of Sony and Microsoft's next-gen consoles. The scheme, revealed earlier this month, will see select games put up for in-store play, though not offered for sale at that stage.

The next generation of console gaming is upon us. Nintendo has already launched its Wii U, Microsoft’s Xbox One will be launching sometime later this year, and Sony has revealed several details about its PlayStation 4.

But unlike its chief competitors, Sony has decided against showing off the design of its next console. The company announced the device earlier this year, talked about its specs, but wouldn’t show what it actually looked like. And when the console was recently featured in a teaser for the upcoming E3 gaming trade show, Sony once again decided against showing off the device.

If you follow the gaming industry at all, you know that Nintendo has been struggling significantly over the last year or so. While the company rode high on the incredible popularity of the original Nintendo Wii years ago, it has been unable to replicate that success with its latest generation console. The Nintendo Wii U has proven unpopular to the point where many game developers see no value in developing video games for the system.

Microsoft and Sony's enthusiasm about the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 may not be matched with equally vigorous sales, Activision president Bobby Kotick has warned, admitting that the game publisher is preparing itself for a potential slump come launch. "We continue to face the uncertainties of the console transition" Kotick said during Activision's financial results call with investors earlier this week, highlighting Nintendo's struggles with the Wii U as evidence that all is not well with next-gen hardware. The Wii U "has had a very slow start" Kotick pointed out.

In an effort to increase profitability, Nintendo is rumored to be looking into smartphone apps for their Wii U gaming console. Nintendo is hoping that the boost of the number of games available for the Wii U will increase sales for the new console, as well as offer a more diverse library of games to play.

If you're a legacy fan of the original PlayStation, you know good and well that there's nothing quite like an internationally unlocked mod-chipped gaming console. That's what hackers have claimed to have developed in the way of the Wii U this week, and Nintendo has confirmed that they're on the case. While the system itself has not yet been seen or detected playing illegal copies of games, it would appear that Nintendo's ears are perked.

Wiikey, the hackers who invented mod chips and soft mods for the Nintendo Wii and many other consoles, have developed a new hack for the Wii U that lets them play content and games from a custom USB drive. With the new hacking method, it looks like you won't need to do any hardware modifications to your system to hack it. All you need to do is connect the custom USB device, WiikeÜ, too your Wii U and you're good to go.